Repsol Honda Play It Safe In Jerez Drizzle

Repsol Honda chose to keep their running to a minimum on day two of the final pre-season test at Jerez with wet weather making conditions treacherous. Dani Pedrosa put in 25 laps, most of which were in full-wet conditions, and collected data which he feels may prove useful in the event of a wet race early in the season.

“I decided to go out when it started raining properly because it’s always good to get some information about the behaviour of the bike in wet conditions before the beginning of the season, and even more important with a new bike. Obviously, the set-up of the bike was pretty standard on chassis and electronics, but I had good feelings riding it, the bike worked well and it gives me confidence. If it’s not raining tomorrow we will go back to the testing program we had planned for today: basically to try some new ideas for the chassis and the electronics and if we have time I’d like to do a race simulation. Everything has been positive and smooth so far, so let’s hope to close the pre-season with a good result”.

Teammate Casey Stoner did even less running, completing just a single timed lap all day, and with the risk of crashing too high, the World Champion decided to call it a day. Stoner is now looking ahead to the final day of testing on Sunday as he looks to finalise the preparations for his title defence.

“We realised that the weather conditions weren’t really suitable for what we needed to work on today so we decided to wait for the heavier rain, which never appeared. We went out briefly but realised it wasn’t really wet enough to work on anything regarding wet set-up and there was no reason for us to stay out on track and ruin sets of tyres. They were 50/50 conditions and you never set up a bike for these circumstances. I hope the weather improves tomorrow so we can continue our plan”.